2 dozen cases reported in 4 days
Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Jan 6: As the snowfall brought the routine life to a grinding halt across Kashmir, the far-flung areas which experienced heavy snowfall had to face immense troubles particularly in carrying pregnant women and other patients to the nearby healthcare facilities.
The majority of such cases have been reported from South Kashmir belt where people were forced to carry pregnant women on cots, makeshift stretchers while in one case from Shopian, a lady delivered her baby on way to the hospital.
In Shopian and Anantnag, several cases were reported where people carried pregnant women to nearby hospitals on a cot in the absence of any assistance from the local administration. There, the help came much later.
In another similar case, a pregnant woman who was being brought down through difficult terrain, delivered a baby in a makeshift shed while as her family was taking her to a nearby hospital soon after she complained of labour pain.
“The road was blocked due to the snowfall, though we tried to take her to the hospital, she developed more pain while we were on way to the healthcare facility, her pain aggravated and she delivered nearby,” a family member of the lady said.
Experts said it has been observed over the years that whenever there is a heavy to moderate snowfall, such incident comes to the fore, and while most of the patients managed to reach the hospital after undergoing a lot of trouble, there always remains a risk to the lives of patients as well as to those who manage to carry such patients.
In yet another case in Shopian, the family of a pregnant lady had to carry her on shoulders for more than 5 kilometres only after which they were able to manage a car which then took her to a nearby hospital.
In Budgam’s Beerwah, the family of an ailing woman had to carry her on a cot while it was snowing to a nearby healthcare facility. The family, when the incident was reported a day ago, said that it took them more than 3 hours on foot to reach from Beerwah to a nearby hospital.
The administration in the South Kashmir itself stated that it evacuated more than 21 women who were either pregnant or were facing other complications.
It is to be noted here that at a certain situation, not even the police could help the family members in South Kashmir. Despite the presence of police, the families had to carry the patients as the roads were not motorable at all.
Keeping such a scenario in view, the Baramulla district administration had also taken certain measures of evacuating the pregnant ladies beforehand to an accessible location; however, such measures also could have the required penetration.
Various other cases have also come to the fore where officials from the police and the civil administration came to the rescue of patients and expecting mothers as the officials stated that over two dozen pregnant women were evacuated and shifted to hospitals in various areas of the Kashmir valley over the past four days.
On Wednesday, Kashmir police said that it saved precious lives by shifting a pregnant lady to hospital in Bandipora and a lady patient along with her newly born baby to the hospital in Kulgam.
In another incident Srinagar, police had to evacuate a with kidney ailment patient with from Srinagar’s Khanyar area which received considerably less snowfall in comparison to the far off areas of south Kashmir.
An official at PHC Soibugh in Budgam district said that they had to refer two pregnant women to District Hospital Budgam and it took the ambulance four hours to cover 15 minutes normal drive. He said that the snow has not been cleared form the main road leading to Budgam or Srinagar despite repeated requests by the health officials to district administration.
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